• 3) Correct the given outline of the text:

Jaqueline Hope-Wallace celebrated her 100^th birthday because she was active mentally all her life long. Although she passed her school exams brilliantly, and graduated from Oxford with a degree in public administration, she couldn’t find a decent job for two years. She had to sell hats at “Harrods” before she joined the Ministry of Labour thanks to her father’s efforts. She made a successful career and was very happy to contribute to the improvement of people’s lives in rural settlements. Her international experience made her an Under-Secretary of State. She stayed in the Civil Service for thirty years being the only woman within various departments which was her secret pride.

5.25 Susan clarke: a girl from the town hall

• 1) Put the sentences into logical order:

a) She is planning to get promotion in her job.

b) She had to start working after school as “the office dogsbody.”

c) Susan is happy now.

d) She didn’t enter college or university after school.

e) Susan Clarke is 18 years old.

f) She failed her final exams at school.

g) The girl became a post of a clerical assistant.

Lancashire, in the north of England, is proud of its many fine old towns, and Bolton is one of the best. Its nineteenth-century town hall is a beautiful reminder of the good old days when Lancashire cotton was famous all over the world. Times have changed. The old town hall stands like a lonely island in a sea of newer buildings. But there’s nothing old-fashioned about the people who work inside it. They do a modern job for a modern city. One of those people is Susan Clarke, a clerical assistant, aged eighteen.

Susan began her career with a disappointment. She did not do as well as she had hoped in her end-of-school exams. So when she started work, it was as the office “dogsbody,” doing all the small, boring jobs that no one else wanted to do. She found herself helping with the photocopying, booking rooms for meetings, and showing people the way to the right office. She had to run round with messages, check the letters for the post, and keep lists of all the office equipment.

Like most British office workers, Susan worked from nine to five with an hour off for lunch. She enjoyed herself. She liked doing a lot of different things, and she liked the friendly atmosphere. But nobody wants to be the office dogsbody forever. Susan soon saw her chance. She applied for a job in a new-community scheme, still inside the town hall, and she got it.

Like other British cities, Bolton has seen many changes since the Second World War. The cotton industry has grown smaller and smaller, and many people have no work. Some parts of the city centre have been rebuilt, but some are old, and falling down. Bolton has all the problems of “inner city decay” which affect so many British cities. It’s the job of local government officials, who work from the town hall, to try to find answers to Bolton’s many problems.

Susan knows she’s lucky to have a good, safe job. She’s even luckier because she’s getting a good training. Every week she has a day off to go to college on a “day release” scheme. So far, she has done courses in accounting, business organization, and social services. One day she wants to work in the social services department. She wants to deal directly with the people whose problems bring them in to ask for help: the old, the sick, the unemployed, and the homeless. “I’ve always wanted to work with people,” says Susan. She will have plenty of chances to do that in Bolton town hall.